Utah has made history as the first state to provide a driver\u2019s license for undocumented immigrants, offering a special class of driver\u2019s license to those ineligible for the document under recently implemented federal security standards.<\/p>\n
These newly enforced standards now require various documents to be presented as part of the application process for a driver\u2019s license. The documents include proof of identity, a valid social security number<\/a>, and proof of lawful residence, making it impossible for immigrants to obtain a license. Utah, being a state very accepting of immigrants, found a workaround in the form of a special license. Car insurance<\/a> will still be a requirement on the road.<\/p>\n This special license is effective and legal only within the state\u2019s boundaries since it\u2019s part of a two-tier system that exists only in Utah. Legal and documented residents will still be able to receive a standard driver\u2019s license, but illegal residents can now obtain a \u201cdriving privilege card\u201d that will allow the recipient to drive within the state. Its usefulness as a form of legal identification, however, is limited and invalid anywhere outside of Utah.<\/p>\n This new policy is Utah\u2019s reaction to the Real ID Act<\/a>, a policy put in place by homeland security<\/a> in an effort to identify illegal aliens living within the country. Utah\u2019s position as an immigration sanctuary allows it to subvert this new set of regulations in favor of helping immigrants.<\/p>\n Utah\u2019s sanctuary status also gives way to policies preventing law enforcement from inquiring about a resident\u2019s immigration status. If an illegal alien is able to produce their driving privilege card and proof of insurance, no investigation of their citizenship will be permitted within the states sanctuary cities, including Provo and Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n Latino rights advocates in the area have issued a massive thanks to the Beehive State for allowing these immigrants to prove themselves on the road. Utah has assured them that no information about the immigration status of applicants will be shared with federal immigration authorities, providing a truly safe way for illegal immigrants to drive safely, responsibly, and legally.<\/p>\n Before the application of the Real ID Act, it was much simpler for states to allow the practice of granting illegal immigrant driver\u2019s licenses. They simply didn\u2019t ask for proof of legal residency. Utah wasn\u2019t alone in utilizing this loophole. In fact, three other states allowed immigrants to legally drive this way \u2013 Hawaii, New Mexico, and Washington \u2013 but Utah has been the first to introduce a workaround for the newly appointed law.<\/p>\n How is Utah allowed to do this? Well, it all comes down to what the driving privilege card really allows. Clearly, it allows the recipient to drive, but even the limitations on driving are clear and strict. Even stricter are the rules on whether or not this card counts as legal identification \u2013 in most cases, it does not.<\/p>\n Hopefully, this new law will allow illegal immigrants \u2013 people who need to drive, regardless of legality \u2013 to prove their competency behind the wheel and make the streets safe. The same tests that apply to legal citizens apply to immigrants, so those able to pass these tests can rest assured knowing that they\u2019re not putting anyone in danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Utah has made history as the first state to provide a driver\u2019s license for undocumented immigrants, offering a special class of driver\u2019s license to those ineligible for the document under recently implemented federal security standards. These newly enforced standards now require various documents to be presented as part of the application process for a driver\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188,263,649],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}